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Saturday, October 09, 2010

Checking in with a quick note from Paris where I just watched a replay of Uncle Mo's win in the Champagne. Y'know, I don't get excited about horses until they've actually advanced beyond winning a maiden race and entry-level allowance, and this Grade 1 race was nothing but the latter. Having said that though, any time you see a horse come home in 24 flat in a mile dirt race, it's doing pretty well, no less a two-year old making its second start (final time an impressive 1:34.51). He might have gone even faster had he not on three occasions lugged in during the stretch drive. And remember that he got his last quarter in 23.54 in his six furlong debut.

Still, he beat nobody of note - really, the Grade 1 designations of these two-year old races are really a joke - and none of the three horses who have run back from his debut have particularly flattered him. So let's at least wait until after the Juvenile before we get carried away about his legendary prowess.

- The Rangers are about to open their 2010-11 season. And, it being 1:30 AM here in Paris, I'm about to go to bed. Pretty damn nice here by the way.

3,300 VLT's up and running next May at Aqueduct according to Genting. NYRA is already fielding requests from California (synthetic) trainers and Kentucky trainers wanting stall space. Stallions shuffling back to New York to take advantage of the lucrative New York State breeding program.

Many of the NY Stallion operations are in negotiations with major KY Breeders to stand stallions this season.

900 NY foals in 2010, may be three times that in 2012 and with much improved sires (the quality of which already began to improve last year to some extent in anticipation).

I still think Charlie is being way too optimistic with his purse increase forecasts, and the NYC OTB issue remains a big uncertainty, so the future may not be as rosy as projected but it certainly looks better than struggling KY and FLA and even CA.